SPIRIT of Monmouth’s Katie Adams challenged herself at the ‘Murder Mile’ – a famously tough one-mile uphill evening footrace in Wales, organised by Islwyn Running Club., reports VICKY ROBERTS.

Known for its relentless incline and extreme difficulty, it is described as one of the toughest races in the UK by Runner’s World, testing lungs and legs to the extreme.

Katie described it as brutal and thinks she set off too fast having to walk some of the second half, completing the mile in 11 minutes to finish fifth woman.

Back in Monmouth on Chippenham fields, Spirit’s Brian Evans ran his 250th parkrun, 70 of which have been on the local course.

Brian ran with family, friends and Spirit club mates to finish in 27mins 52secs, with son Tarran flying ahead to cross in 21.44.

Louise Hartree spent a Saturday running the 18km Dennison Round, a social run starting and finishing at the First Light café in Tongwynlais, with runners ringing the bell.

Louise Hartree rings the bell
Louise Hartree rings the bell (SoM)

The round takes in beautiful views on The Garth, Crag yr Allt, Caerphilly Mountain and at Castell Coch, in whatever order you want.

On Sunday (August 31), Rogue Runs hosted their annual 61km Wyedean relay and Ultra, that included seven legs from Ross to Chepstow and took runners along a beautiful off-road journey following the Wye Valley Walk and Offa’s Dyke paths.

Spirits were out in force for the Wye Valley Relay
Spirits were out in force for the Wye Valley Relay (SoM)

Spirit entered two teams, with Brian Evans (54.49) and Nick Sloper (55.11) off first along forest tracks which included some tough climbs before finishing seconds apart.

Steve Salter, borrowed from Liswerry, stepped in at the last minute to complete the longest leg from Kerne Bridge to Symonds Yat alongside Kirk Hill, who was happy to see the finish line in 1.15.33, finishing in 11th out of 42 runners.

James Exton and Sian Fielding took the third leg from Symonds Yat to Monmouth, a well known route to both, who crossed Wye Bridge to finish in 49.50 and 54.50.

Chairman Barry Burns and Tom Chinnick had the toughest leg starting on a steep climb up the Kymin and along Offa’s Dyke.

Spirit runners ran the Wye Valley Relay
Spirit runners ran the Wye Valley Relay (SoM)

Not stopping to look at the views, the pair raced down to Redbrook where they had to climb another steep hill before finishing at Gumbersland Barn.

Tom finished fourth in 51.24, which put Spirit into 12th, and Barry in 60.12, with the 2nds 18th.

Leg 5 was a short 5k from Bigsweir to Brockweir Bridge alongside the Wye for Chris Baber (28.57) and Helen Dunn (34.14).

Katie Adams and Sarah Baker then started leg 6 to Wyndcliffe in a torrential downpour, which continued throughout the run.

After some hill climbing the ladies hit the woods for a little shelter, with Katie finishing fastest woman and seventh in 35.58, with Sarah enjoying her return to racing following in 41.18.

Helen Shepherd and Sian Burns then ran the short last leg through Piercefield Park and onto the finish at Chepstow Leisure Centre, the former crossing in 14.24 and the latter in 15.59.

And after a fantastic day and some outstanding running, Spirit finished 12th and 18th out of the 42 teams.

Spirits’ Martin Blakebrough (1.11.10) and Jeremy Creasey (1.11.12) also took part supporting Forest of Dean AC, running the tough fourth leg.